The habit of booking trips late has always been popular in Russia. It has the highest percentage of last-minute bookings out of the top 10 international source markets for travel abroad (with at least one overnight). Russian citizens prefer to book their holidays less than a month before departing – with 73% doing that in 2102. Over the past five years the trend towards booking travel at the last moment has remained unchanged, and has hardly fluctuate.

Key findings:

• Italy and China: Italian and Chinese travellers also book their holidays at the last moment, although last-minute bookings in these two markets have declined. In 2008, 69% of Italian holiday-makers made last-minute bookings, while in 2012 it was only 64%. In China the number fell from 73% in 2008 to 62% in 2012.

• Japan and France: Last-minute bookings are comparatively low in these two countries, at 58% in Japan and 53% in France. However, both markets reported a slight upward trend – in 2008, the figure for Japan was 53% and for France 51%.

• Germany: German market’s share of last-minute bookings was relatively high, at 46%. However, compared with other western European countries this figure was below average.

• The Netherlands: When it comes to their next holidays the Dutch prefer to make their plans in advance. At 33% the Dutch market reported the highest percentage of early bookings (four months or more before departing). However, there is a shift taking place over the last five years as early bookings have fallen by 27%.

• Germany and UK: The German and UK markets also reported a relatively high percentage of early bookings, at 29% and 28% respectively, In Germany last-minute bookings have fallen by 6% since 2008, whereas in the UK they have risen slightly, by 4%.

Early bookings are of only minor importance in Russia, China and Japan. In 2012 only 6%  of Russian holiday-makers. and 8% each of Chinese and Japanese travellers booked their trips four months or more in advance.

Dr. Martin Buck, director of Travel & Logistics at Messe Berlin, said, “The fact that the various source markets report widely differing booking habits could carry an important message for all those commercial providers who are already operating in the respective markets or are planning to do so. The intense level of debate on this subject, in Germany at least, which has been taking place over the last few years is an indicator of how important the aspect of booking ahead is when buying a holiday.”